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The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 19: 1987-1988 (2013)

by Charles M. Schulz(Favorite Author)

4.38 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1606996347 (ISBN13: 9781606996348)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Fantagraphics Books

series

Complete Peanuts

review 1: A lot happening in these two years of Peanuts, and the volume starts with a very cool intro by Garry Trudeau. Mr Trudeau compares Schultz to Bill Mauldin a famous cartoonist from WW II, and one of Charles heroes, and then "blamed" his own career on his love of Charles Schultz. A fun way to start the volume off.1087 starts off with Charlie Brown winking at the little red haired girl and ends up with him in the eye doctors office having it checked out. Romance is in the air as Linus is having his first problems with Lydia who doesnt know who he is,even tho he sat in front of her all year in school. Snoopy is prominent all thru the volume as a surgeon, a member of the foreign legion,the flyin ace and a patient with knee surgery. Peppermint Patty trys for May Queen again and f... morealls far short. Rerun learns the finger snap. Marcie tells Charlie Brown that her and Peppermint Patty "love him" and PP worries about it the whole time they're at camp,as swim instructors.In fact the PP/Marcie/"Chuck" triangle keeps coming up thru the whole volume. There's a new character that wants to be part of a non-existant football team,Leland, who is a helmet with feet. On the holiday gets out Christmassed and the problem continues on Valentines Day. I also found PP's wig to be a fun little run.It was during this period that Charles Schultz started to experiment with the format of the dailies. Sometimes using just three panels, sometimes just using one long panel. Very creative and interesting lesson for anyone interesting in cartooning.This is a great series for fans and a lot of fun for anyone who happens upon it. I recommend it but I am that a huge fan of Schulz and Maudlin too.
review 2: Imagine doing the same thing for 38 years, and then being told you have to make a significant change. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty upset. Well, on February 29, 1988, Charles Schulz suddenly had to draw his daily strips in a much smaller size, as did all other comic strips. The exception was Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury, which Trudeau successfully argued needed more space because it was political. No doubt Schulz was upset and complained about the shrinkage of space. But a remarkable thing happened – his strips suddenly became a lot better. They don’t come anywhere close to the pinnacle of the seventies’ strips. But the change in size seems to have sparked Schulz’s creativity. The most obvious change on 2/29/88 strip is that the number of panels has gone from four squares to three. But then on 3/11 he decided to squeeze in four squares, each of uneven size. On 4/2 he does something quite remarkable for him, and makes the strip a single panel. Did he do this before the size change? If so, I don’t remember it. On 4/16 he tries out a two-square strip. The size of the squares has a dramatic effect on his artwork. I’m no artist, but even I can see that the bigger squares allow Schulz to play around with perspective. Some of the strips lose their flat two-dimensional looks and actually look somewhat three-dimensional. This seems most evident when he has his characters sit in oversized chairs.None of this would matter if the strips themselves weren’t funny. My theory is that the shake-up in the art inspired him to shake up his gags. We’re still stuck with lots of un-funny Spike strips, but there are some real gems in between. My favorite are the strips with Linus and Lydia, a girl who completely messes with his head. When she’s not coming up with creative ways of telling him that he’s too old for him, she’s constantly changing her name. “Tomorrow my name will be Ophelia..As my character grows and my beauty increases, so will my names change…” Pretty meta thing to say for a Peanuts character. Lucy asks Linus, “Why do you bother with her.” Linus replies “She fascinates me.” (In a four-panel strip – so much for my theory. Although, to be fair, it happens a couple of months before the change, so maybe Schulz was already inspired to shake things up.)Anyway, it’s unfair to say Schulz wasn’t funny after the seventies. The fact is that he’s always had dry spells in his humor. In the eighties, these dry spells can last over a year. But what the 1988-89 edition proves is that those dry spells weren’t permanent, and he still had a few good gags up his sleeve.One last note – Gary Trudeau is an asshole. The prefaces to the Complete Peanuts series have been uniformly abysmal, with the exception of Robert Smigel’s entry in 75-76. Why did they give Trudeau the 88-89 slot? Did Trudeau ask for it or was it randomly assigned. Trudeau is a fellow cartoonist closely associated with the size change. Does he bring it up at all? No. Because he’s an asshole. Instead he writes some tripe about how famous Schulz is. Well, no kidding. Nobody’s clamoring for “The Complete Doonesbury.” Why on earth did they give Trudeau a preface slot when Schulz was on record that he thought Doonesbury sucked. Trudeau’s lame preface was probably his way of sticking it back at Schulz. He doesn’t deign to talk about Schulz’s craft, doesn’t analyze how he tackled the change. That would force Trudeau to come to terms with how Schulz’s craft completely obliterates his own. I understand that Tom Tomorrow is doing the preface for 91-92 book. I can’t wait. less

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